PROXOUNCED m CASTIiE GAR^^, JULY 2T, 1840, 

BY HUGH A. GARLAND, 

or VIRGINIA, 


IN CELEBRATION OP THE 


Second 10eclaratlon of Independence^ 


OR 


the JJntrepentrent ^KvmBUvyt 33tlL 


^ NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM G. BOGGS, 

OFFICE OF THE EVENING POST. 27 PINE STREET. 

-^> 








PRONOUNCED IN CASTLE GARDEN, JULY *1, 1840, 


cX 

BY HUGH A. GARLAND, 

I) 

or vinoiNiA, 


IN CELEBRATION OP THE 




m 




OE 


ChE iiassaflc of the Kahepentient ffieeasuvg nm. 



NEW YORK: 


PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM G. BOGGS, 

OFFICE OF THE EVENING POST, »7 PINE STREET. 




CORRESPONDENCE. 

New York, July 31st, 1840. 

Dear Sir —On behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, we re¬ 
spectfully request that you will write out for publication, the instruc¬ 
tive and eloquent address delivered by you at the Mass Convention of 
the Democratic Republican Electors of the First Senatorial District of 
this State, held at Castle Garden, in this city, on the 27lh instant, for 
the purpose of celebrating the “ Second Declaration of Independence”— 
the passage of the Independent Treasury Bill. In making this re¬ 
quest, we feel that we are not merely carrying out the wishes of our 
Committee, but giving expression to the desires of the largest political 
meeting ever held in this country—your audience on that occasion. 

We are well aware that the labor which a compliance will impose 
upon you cannot but be great; but we earnestly represent that a pro¬ 
duction in which the simplici'y and truth of the great democratic prin¬ 
ciple are so elfectivelv depicted, its history so faithfully sketched, and 
the necessity of its adoption, with the rest of the creed inculcated by 
the Saviour, to secure the greatest happiness to our race, so forcibly 
demonstrated, should not be allowed to exert its influence solely upon 
the minds of the immense auditory before whom it was delivered, or 
rest with their approbation, but ought to be sent forth upon the wings 
of the press to aid our cause by disseminating a knowledge of its 
truth and justice, and to reap the full plaudits of the present and, per¬ 
chance, of future generations. 

To secure the continued predominance and future progress of that 
^ principle, the Democratic Party is now engaged in a fierce and vital 
struggle, in which it has a right to demand the assistance of every true' 
patriot. At such a time we feel assured you will not omit any honor¬ 
able means to help the good cause to a glorious triumph. 

We are, with great respect, sincerely.yours. 

GERARDUS BOYCE, 
GILBERT C. BAYLIS, 
NELSON J. WATERBURY. 

Hugh A. Garland, Esq. 


Petersburgh, Va., August 5, 1840. 

Gentlemen —Your letter ‘‘on behalf of the Committee of Arrange¬ 
ments,” requesting a copy of the oration delivered in Castle Garden, 
on the 27th July, has been received. 

I will not undertake to express to you my feelings at the flattering 
manner in which you allude to my efforts on that occasion. If the 
cause of truth can be promoted by a publication of what was then 
spoken, I shall be much gratified. I will write out and forward to you 
a copy as soon as possible. 

Yours respectfully. 

HUGH A. GARLAND. 

Messrs. Gerardus Boyce, Gilbert C. Baylis, and Nelson J. Wa- 

TERBURY. 



RCS V 


ORATION. 


^ THE PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY IDENTICAL 

WITH THE 

MORAL IMPROVEMENT OF MANKIND. 


In the beginning God said let there be light—and there 
was light. The All-creative Word went forth; and as a 
quickening spirit, brooded o’er chaos—breathed a working 
energy into its lifeless mass—^set the shapeless earths in mo¬ 
tion—rolled them up into suns and worlds—and swung them 
on .their measured courses to waft their circling seasons 
round. Fiery comets too were made 

“ Far away to blaze, 

Immeasurably far, 

Crossing at will the intertangl’d maze 
Of circling sun and star.” 

The living principle, then set in motion in the beginning, 
still goes on, creating, changing, in dissolution, re-produc¬ 
tion, filling immensity with its all sustaining presence, and 
weaving through endless shapes the visible garment of the 
Almighty—the mysterious symbols through which Jie is 
seen and felt. Well might he behold and pronounce them 
good ; but they were not sufficient to gratify his infinite be¬ 
nevolence. There was yet wanting a living soul, to reflect 



4 


back his own image, to behold him eye in eye, giving and 
receiving—innumerable blessings from the one, and, in re¬ 
turn, infinite love and gratitude. What were Paradise, with¬ 
out a kindred soul to dwell in unison with our own! or 
home, without those dear objects of atfection that rest on 
the bosom, live in the heart, and call forth its kindest emo¬ 
tions ! And what were the universe to its Creator, without 
an intelligfent beina: to dwell therein and bless it but himself! 
And doubtless he has filled every sun and star with those 
who feel his presence and acknowledge his goodness in 
ceaseless adoration. Of these we can know but little; one 
thing only are we assured of—that man was created, and 
that this green earth was made the place of his abode. 

In the image of God was he created, after his own like¬ 
ness ; hot prone and cowering, as the brute; but erect and 
noble; looking on the heaven, and the stars; with a form 
of divinest mould, in which was breathed the breath of 
life—a living soul—an effluence of God himself. Beneath 
that covering of flesh there breathes a living spirit, of infi¬ 
nite capacities, endless duration, and of a value beyond all 
worlds. Mount, if you can, from star to star, until you 
reach the throne of the Eternal; thence look abroad and 
gather into one wide scope a universe of suns, and they all 
weigh as dust on the balance when poised in the scale with 
one human being. 

What are they—those millions on millions of glittering 
gems that gild the azure vault of heaven I They are no¬ 
thing; of nothing they came, to nothing will they re¬ 
turn. The hardest adamant is resolved, by the chemist’s 
subtle process, into element after element, till there be 
no residuum left. In the infinite space around, worlds are 
daily dissolving, daily forming, in endless progression. So 
that this solid seeming earth on which we tread, may be 
crushed into a nut shell, the sun itself rolled away as a va¬ 
por, and all the starry hosts dissolved into shadows, fleeting¬ 
time garments of the Almighty, ever shifting, ever changing! 


5 


But the soul of man is spiritual, unchangeable, imperishable; 
endowed with the divine faculty of reason; capable of look¬ 
ing through the laws of outward creation, and recognizing 
therein the adored Father of its own being; and in itself 
constitutes that all pervading power, that mysterious princf- 
ple of union and sympathy, that binds God and man, and 
nature, into a perfect whole and oneness—endowed also with 
a free will, capable, of its own motion, without motive or 
outward impulse, of following in the light of reason, whose 
sure guidance is to a veneration of God, fidelity to himself, 
and justice to his fellow man. 

With these endowments was man created; such is the glo¬ 
rious inheritance, divine and imperishable, not of one but of all 
men. Not of kings and princes and nobles, but of the hum¬ 
blest being who wears the form and countenance of man¬ 
hood. 

The toil-worn craftsman, who, with heavy hand and pon¬ 
derous weapon, laboriously conquers the earth, and compels 
it to yield sustenance to the hungry, and seed to the sower, 
though rugged and weather beaten, is he not my brother ? 
Has he not a face, manlike, though bowed with care ; spiri¬ 
tual faculties of highest temper, though undeveloped, and 
well nigh smothered by the outward pressure of a toilsome 
life? a heart that can flow out with an all-embracing love 
towards friends and benefactors ; and feel, with keenest sense^ 
the wrong and injustice that may be done him? And when 
that wrong is repeated and perpetuated, cannot his indig¬ 
nation, boiling up from the infinite depths of a wounded 
spirit, pour fourth like an impetuous torrent, sweeping 
the wrong and the wrong-doer from his presence? The 
sorrowful beggar, who prays of a fellow being a single rai¬ 
ment to cover his nakedness, and a morsel of bread to feed 
his fainting heart, is possessed of rights as precious to him, 
and as inalienable, as the proud lordling who turns him 
away, with scorn and reproach, for his misfortunes. Born 
into the world without his consent, he has a right to live on 




6 


it; to draw his sustenance from it; to enjoy its blessings 
and, when his days are ended, to be buried in its bosom. 
And if, by any selfishness or injustice of his fellow man, 
rather than his own folly, he be deprived of these privileges, 
robbed of his inheritances, it is an injustice heaven never 
approved, and earth will not forever endu re. 

Formed in the image of his Creator, endowed with the 
highest faculties of knowledge, control and guidance, with 
reason, conscience and free will, to subdue and restrain the 
baser passions of his animal nature, man might have made a 
paradise of his earthly abode, and dwelt therein in peace and 
harmony, with a mystic bond pervading all hearts, drawing 
them together in brotherhood, and completing a perfect whole 
of God and Man, in union and everlasting happiness. But 
man, alas ! soon forgot the spiritual nature of the Being that 
made him, and the spiritual essence of his own soul. He 
forgot that nature, as it appears to him, is but the vesture in 
which the All-pervading spirit of God manifests himself to 
mortal eyes ; that the visible and tangible are mere appear¬ 
ances—sound and shadow, obscuring the glow of heaven, 
and that the invisible alone is real and substantial. He 
looked on the sun, and moon, and stars, not as the time gar¬ 
ment of the Almighty, but as deities, possessing the power of 
controlling his destiny, and worthy of his adoration and wor¬ 
ship. Mistaking the limited and visible symbol for the infi¬ 
nite and the spiritual working within, he grasped the shadow 
for the substance. Having dissolved that mystic union that 
bound him to heaven, and was his only safe guidance here 
on earth; having cut loose from his spiritual moorings, he 
drifted farther and farther from truth and hope. 

From those higher symbols he soon fell to worshipping 
inferior emblems of power; then betook himself to images, 
the workmanship of his own hands; and, finally, scrupled 
not to bow the knee in supplication to beasts and reptiles, 
and all manner of creeping things; nothing too vile, no¬ 
thing too degraded for the dark and besotted mind, in which 


7 


the light of reason had been extinguished, and whence all 
spiritual guides had been driven and overwhelmed by the 
inrushing torrent of lawless and brutal passion. 

When the mariner ceases to take the aspect of the heavens, 
and to guide his course by the polar star, his path is among 
the breakers, his home in the bottom of the deep. When 
man ceased to look upward, and to follow the infinite law of 
reason, working in harmony with his own spiritual being, 
and yielded himself to the blind impulses of senseless pas¬ 
sion, what could follow but the most disastrous wreck of life 
and fortune ? 

Passion is an animal instinct, purely selfish in its desires ; 
ever feeding on its own lusts, boundless in its craving, ever 
seeking its own ends, without consciousness or remorse. 
When, therefore, man had voluntarily extinguished the nobler 
principle, and yielded himself to the blind instincts of a 
baser nature, then anger, and cruelty, and revenge, and lust, 
became the master powers of his heart; and rapine, and war, 
and tyranny, and murder, and torture, the only modes of 
existence, of retribution, and of justice. 

Violence filled the land. The husbandman scattered his 
seed, not knowing that he would ever reap. Should he look 
forth in the morning, with cheerful heart, on the fields now 
ripening for the harvest, ere night some lawless robber, or 
mighty hunter of men, sweeps through the land, and all is 
lone and desolate. 

Magnificent cities were built—and lofty towers, and wide 
encircling walls. Province was chained to province by an 
iron despotism; and mighty empires created, knowing no 
other bond of union save the will of one man, holding in his 
breast the power of life and death over abject millions, who 
toiled in his service, and knew no higher privilege than to 
bow themselves in his presence and kiss the dust beneath his 
feet, till some mightier than he, smites him to the earth, and 
scatters his broken provinces, that himself in some other 
quarter, may gather tip the fragments to build a throne to 


8 


lord it over his fellow men—destined in his turn to be 
cleaved in twain by the iron stroke of some taller giant. 

The fierce spirit of violence that filled the land was em¬ 
bodied and personified into a visible shape; and Moloch and 
the god of war were worshipped by all men. Thus for toil¬ 
some ages the generations of mankind moved on, bearing their 
grievous burthen, finding no rest, and without hope, seeing 
no end. 

Utterly lost and blotted out was the remembrance of a bet¬ 
ter day, of a higher nature slumbering within them. Old 
bards sung of a golden age—but they were regarded as idle 
dreamers. Venerable prophets, in their visions, spoke of the 
divine origin of man—the purpose of his being, his high 
destiny and immortality, and foretold purer, brighter days to 
come—but they were mocked and derided as men bereft of 
their senses. Noble commonwealths were planned by wise 
philosophers, where reason and justice held sway, and equal 
rights prevailed—but these Utopean plans were considered 
the hopeful fancies of creative minds, incapable of being re¬ 
alized, and were planted far out beyond Atlantis and Hespe- 
rides, where no mortal dwelt. 

Through many generations, in bitterness and sorrow, man¬ 
kind was taught this lesson—that, without spiritual guidance, 
all visible government must end in wrong, injustice and op¬ 
pression. But of this spiritual guidance—what is it ? 
whence cometh it ? and of its actual existence within their 
own bosom, the men of those generations knew nothing. 
The slightest trace thereof had been effaced from their me¬ 
mory. Some divine Plato, or Tully, far retired in the shades, 
by deep meditation, and anxious questioning of their own 
longing hearts, discerned at length some faint, far off glim¬ 
mering of an immortal spirit now slumbering, and well nigh 
extinguished. But there was no distinct recognition—no 
clear consciousness of the truth, so impressing the heart of 
man that he might lay hold on it, and, with assured faith, be 
guided by it, through the mazy labyrinths of life. 


9 


The fullness of time had now come. The experiment of 
living under the influences of blind, selfish, animal passion, 
was complete. All bonds of union and of sympathy were 
•dissolved. The world had grown to be a wide waste—a 
den of thieves—a wilderness of ravening wolves. In this 
wretched condition—heaven shut against them—on earth no 
refuge—in dissolution and hopelessness—then it was the true 
prophet came—the genuine seer, authorized to teach man¬ 
kind what they had forgotten—restore what they had lost-— 
rekindle the smothered spirit—unfold its ancient faculties, 
and re-unite them to heaven so as again to make a bond of 
brotherhood on earth, and an union and oneness between 
God and his creatures. 

This divine prophet, like all true greatness^ was plain iii 
his deportment, simple in all he said and did. He was born 
in a manger—was the son of a carpenter, and toiled like 
other men for the bread that sustained him. Obscure and 
unknown till his thirtieth year, when feeling the burthen of 
the charge laid on him, he went forth on his great and 
lemn mission. Not among the rich and noble did he make 
his appearance ; not to the judges and learned doctors of the 
law and the high priests of the temple, but to' the poor and 
imiorant he tanoflit his lessons —among them he sought his' 
companions. The humble publican, by his profession, shut 
out from society, scorned and despised—him he took by the 
hand—went with him to his home—sat with him at meat,' 
and talked to him—opened up the fountain of his heart- 
restored the dead sympathies of his nature, and made him 
feel that he too was a man. 

To those who laid heavy burthens on others, and lightened 
them not by the weight of a little finger—to them he feared 
not to speak the truth, and pronounced them whited sepul¬ 
chres, full of rottenness and dead men’s bones. And from 
the temple, with a lash of cords, he drove out the money¬ 
changers and usurers, who fattened on the necessities, and 
ground the faces of the poor, and polluted the sanctuary with 

2 


10 


their villainous traffic. His disci{)les, to whom he was about 
to reveal the sublimest lessons, were taken from among the 
humblest fishermen, whose thoughts had never extended be¬ 
yond the mending of nets, the dragging of fishes, and huck^ 
fetering in the markets. 

These men in the humbler ^alks of life, felt the burthen^ 
and grbaned under the oppression of those who ruled over 
them with the fierce despotism of animal passion, and, there¬ 
fore, were selected as the depositories of those doctrines 
which would convey to them a knowledge of the injustice, 
and inspire them with a sense of their own high character 
and value. 

The learned doctors and rulers of the people cared not for 
the truth—rather feared and fought against it, lest it might 
upset the present quiet order of things; take from them their 
monopdlies and privileges, their tythes of mint and of cum¬ 
min ; strip away their broad phylacteries, and bring them to 
a level \vith the common people. The truth also about to 
be revealed, was So simple, so genial to the nature of man, 
springing up as it were from the depths of his own heart, 
that there was no need df learning, only some kindly spirit 
to tell him of its existende, and to awaken it into life. And 
such was the divine prophet of whom we speak. His was 
the mission to restore to man the knowledge of his immor-' 
tality—regenerate the spiritual essence of his soul—quickeri 
and unfold the divine faculties of reason, conscience, free 
will, and restore them to their supremacy over blind appetite,- 
so that by the light of the one, he might see his true rela¬ 
tionship to God and his fellow man, and by the monitions 
and guidance of the others, might act reverently, justly,- 
faithfully, to God, his fellow being, and himself. 

By precept and example, he taught those doctrines which 
made mankind all of one family, exalted the humble, brought 
down the proud, and by parable and miracle revealed to every 
man that he had a living spirit within, possessed of infinite 
faculties, and endowed with imperishable, inalienable rights.- 


11 


These sublime truths, for which the Divine Author waa 
stoned and persecuted, were finally sealed with his blood, 
And his disciples, for the first time, in his death became con¬ 
scious of what he had been vainly endeavoring through life, 
to quicken and make alive in their hearts. By that sad 
event, struck with dismay, they now came to a distinct re¬ 
cognition of the spiritual essence, which had unconsciously 
been slumbering within them—they felt its motions—its 
glowing, warming, expanding, exalting influences, and their 
hearts burned with a desire to proclaim abroad the glorious, 
life-restoring revelation. And, with a zeal that flesh could 
not terrify, death could not conquer, they went forth boldly 
preaching the truth, and shared the fate of their divine mas¬ 
ter. 

The world was all against them—in its feelings and inte¬ 
rests against them. Shall the great Sanhedrim be silenced 
forever, and the proud hierarchy of a thousand years be dis¬ 
robed and turned away as a burthen ? Shall the temple of 
Diana be dismantled and closed against the craftsmen who 
live by her sorceries ? Shall the wisdom of the Greeks be 
pronounced foolishness, and the proud Roman senator, and 
the imperial Caesar, be levelled with the plebean ? Shame on 
such doctrine ! such wild barbarian men ! No treatment too 
severe—no death too cruel to root out such dangerous fana¬ 
ticism ! 

Scourge them—imprison them—hang, crucify and behead 
them—give them to the gladiators to practice their swords 
upon—throw them among the wild beasts to be devoured for 
the amusement of the people—besmear them with pitch, and 
light them up as torches to illumine the city—drive them to 
the caves and hollows of the mountain, that they may die, 
piece by piece, with wasting famine. 

But it was all in vain ! The heart of man was now 
thoroughly awakened; made conscious of its divine origin; 
its immortal imperishable essence ; its infinite spiritual facul¬ 
ties working like leaven through the fleshly mass, and endowed 


12 


with a capacity of strength, expansion and endurance, tri- 
umphing over all temporal considerations; treading under 
foot every perishable thing. The fire once kindled, could 
not be extinguished. It spread from city to city; from coun¬ 
try to country. The war between spirit and the flesh, the 
rightful sovereign, and ignoble usurper of the heart of man, 
waxed hotter and hotter. The high unbending spiritual 
principle of truth stood single handed against the array of 
interest, selfishness, every animal passion, and promised a 
perfect triumph ; a total subjugation of all the sensual appe¬ 
tites. But a truce at length was agreed upon; a compro¬ 
mise was made ;• a fatal compromise, that cost mankind many 
g-enerations of bitter repentance. 

Instead of persevering to the end, and asserting its supre¬ 
macy, its sovereign divine right to rule over the blind pas¬ 
sions, and keep them within the bounds of nature, the spirit 
gave way and agreed to become a co-worker with the sense¬ 
less appetites, and a participator in the ends of their selfish 
desires. Now, for the first time, was introduced a fearful 
element into the working of human affairs; an infinite fiery 
element, under control of a limited self-seeking appetite. 
Like the powerful agents of fire and steam thrown into un¬ 
skilful hands, the quick, expansive, irresistible influences of 
the spirit were awakened, set in motion, and placed under 
control of blind impulses. Then commenced days of the 
wildest fanaticism; and better for the men of those genera¬ 
tions that the soul of man had never been roused from its 
slumbers. That all-pervading, mysterious, electric agency, 
that dwells in the hearts of all men, was now quickened into 
life ; and Peter, the Hermit, could touch a chord that vibrated 
through every bosom. Preaching from the deep enthusiasm 
of his own soul, he could set whole kingdoms on fire, and 
pour out one entire continent for the destruction of another. 
Then commenced that deep and damning hate of father, 
brother and friend, because their faith and conscience led 
^hem a different way from one’s own—a hate of which for- 


13 


mer generations had no conception—a consuming, exterml*^ 
nating hate of the soul, by which the rack and torture, and 
fire and fagot, were made to do their utmost to press and 
burn out heresy from the land. 

Long, cruel and persecuting Avars were Avaged by nation 
against nation through Avhole generations for conscience sake. 
And the fierce conquerors, reeking with the blood of their 
victims, Avere placed on thrones, and made to reign, Avith a 
searching, sleepless despotism, over the bodies, and in the 
consciences of men, by a divine right of kings. Alas ! alas! 
Avhat had the nations gained by a reA^elation of the spiritual 
in the constitution of man 'I What had they gained, but a 
heavier load of oppression—more exacting, unrelenting task¬ 
masters—and a keener torture, a deeper degradation of mind 
^nd body ? Their cries and deep groans, for a thousand 
years, Avent up to heaven unanswered—apparently, unheard. 
Their cup of bitterness Avas full—the experiment they had 
voluntarily brought on themselves was now complete—they 
were sufficiently taught the icastmg^ consuming poiver of 
spiritual bondage. 

Henceforth a belter day Avas to daAvn on the human race.. 
They Avere not long left in despair. A star of promise, rising 
in the distant west, did shine upon their sorrowing hearts.. 
Many a noble spirit, cheered by its beams, resolved to follow 
its guidance, to cross the trackless ocean, and peril all in. 
search of that promised land Avhither it beckoned. Behold 
them as they come furling their sails, and preparing to reach 
that long Avished for shore. The perils of the sea are over;, 
the anxious thought that pressed them doAvn for so many 
weeks as they bounded over the dark Avaters, have given 
place to rejoicing at the sight of the lengthened coast stretch¬ 
ing out its arms to receive them. The last hoarse wave has 
wafted them to the strand. What greetings do they hear? 
What welcomings to their new homes? All Avears the si¬ 
lence and stillness of primeval nature; no hospitable shel¬ 
ter, no feast, no preparation I That deep unshorn forest was 


14 


never taught to yield fruit genial to civilized man—the noi¬ 
some pestilence rises up from the untilled soil-^and its dark 
recesses are nightly filled with the howling of wild beasts, 
and the yells of the savage. But the pilgrim’s firm heart 
quails not. At midnight, when the tempest rocks those 
mighty oaks, and the lightning’s gleam reveals to his startled 
eye the crouching panther, and the lurking Indian, even then 
he thanks God that ho has escaped from his own native land ; 
and that he has the elements, the wild beasts, and the still 
wilder sons of nature to contend with, rather than his own 
countrymen, his own brother Christian, who, under the guise 
of right and religion, sought to rob him of his substance and 
his soul. His free spirit, casting its fetters otf, bounds forth 
with a giant’s strength to grapple with its new enemies. The 
forest and its fierce tenants recede before him; and field, and 
village, and temple, spread their stores and lift their spires 
ill the face of heaven. Cheerful thoughts, unrestrained feel¬ 
ings, and social intercourse warmed and expanded the spi¬ 
ritual energies of their nature, and nursed the heart in that 
genuine freedom of soul which is the only parent of tempo¬ 
ral liberty. 

To them there was no need of instruction—no need of 
lessons to teach their rights and duties; that knowledge 
sprung up spontaneously from the heart, where all true wis¬ 
dom begins. Neighbor greeted neighbor as a friend; each 
had faith in the sincerity and integrity of the other. They 
felt that a common nature bound them together in brother¬ 
hood—imposed on them the same duties, and that all the in¬ 
stitutions and ordinances growing up among them should 
spring from those common rights, interests and dangers; so 
that none should be favored—none oppressed. 

The fame of them went abroad through all the earth. It 
rung through the dungeons and vaulted caverns of the 
tyrant; the captive lifted his hands to heaven in thankful¬ 
ness for a land of hope and release to the oppressed. And 
thither they came from every clime; of whatsoever tongue 


15 


Or creed, hete they foUnd a home and ct \velcome. From the 
moment they touched the genial soil of freedom, they felt 
themselves new creatures ; and the soul, endowed with new 
energies, expanded those immortal faculties, which had been 
pent up and withered by a spiritual bondage; no longef 
poor, no longer oppressed, no longer in the humiliating pre¬ 
sence of lords and superiors, they found themselves mingling 
with peers, and enjoying as an acknowledged right, the^ 
power of thinking, feelingj and acting for themselves.—^ 
l^hither they came in multitudes, more numerous than theJ 
sands on the sea shore—their canvass whitened every breeze^ 
and their vessels covered every sea along that wide extended 
coast, spreading out its bays and quiet harbors to receive 
them. 

Rapidly they grew, and multiplied, and waxed a great na¬ 
tion—a happy people, whb realized the golden age that poets 
dreamed of—exemplified the ideal state, that philosophers in 
Utopia planned, and justified the ways of Providence to man 
—for they experienced, what many thousand generations,' 
by subjecting themselves to the influence of animal passion,' 
had failed to learn. They experienced the mild sway of 
those spiritual faculties, reason and conscience, under whose’ 
dominion law and justice prevailed, social equality and per¬ 
fect liberty were enjoyed. They found that in those ever¬ 
lasting, infinite principles, that spring up spontaneously from 
the unrestrained heart of man, they possessed a bond of union 
which could never be dissolved—a basis of society and of 
government that colild never be shaken—and a power of 
resistance and of guidance that would carry them Safely 
thfough every danger, triumphant over every obstacle. 

When the rulers of the old world, pretending to authority,- 
attempted to impose dutiesj they were promptly and unani¬ 
mously resisted; Mfen trained as they had been, in the full 
enjoyment of spiritual freedom, needed no instruction on the 
Subject of legislation ; no interchange of opinion; no ming¬ 
ling together for mutual excitement and concert of action j 


IG 


the spontaneous impulse of every heart taught them that 
man should be governed by no other laws than those made 
by themselves, and that no burthens should be imposed save 
for the common good. Feeling a consciousness of this truth 
filling their hearts, they did not tamely calculate the chances 
’of success, the dangers to their temporal prosperity, or the 
hazard of their lives and their fortunes, but fearlessly trusted 
to its all-sustaining strength, and boldly stood up in its de¬ 
fence. One feeling of victory or death pervaded every 
bosom. Each proposition of compromise or modification 
was indignantly rejected;—let truth and justice prevailj was 
the conscious impulse of all hearts. But the all grasping Par^ 
liament, not willing to yield their pretensions, and not doubt¬ 
ing to crush those rebellious Subjects, appealed to the might 
of arms, poured forth veteran armies from their battle ships, 
and filled our continent with conflagration and havock. But 
the noble sons of freedom, trusting to that immortal, invin¬ 
cible spirit, swelling in their bosoms, and shooting its sympa¬ 
thetic impulses from heart to heart, boldly stept forth to 
meet the veteran foe. Without an army, without a navy, 
without an established government, without revenue, with¬ 
out munitions of war, without fortificationSj and without an 
ally or friend, they cheerfully fought against the numerous 
hosts of the enemy, and for nearly eight years sustained on 
their own soil the weight of a cruel conflict, amidst want, 
poverty and misfortune. What but the all-pervading spirit 
of liberty, which transmutes the selfish feelings of the heart 
into a burning zeal for the common good; what but those 
everlasting principles that spring up from the infinite depths 
of an immortal soul, exalting the man and endowing Him 
with more than human energies, could have sustained and 
guided them amid so many toils and privations ? Burn their 
cities, lay waste their lands, utterly consume every vestige 
of visible property. Were they then conquered? Was it 
for these they perilled their lives ? Their indignant spirits, 
conscious of their own exalted worth, scorned such paltry 


17 


considerations. The humblest man, who hurled defiance in 
the face of those who sought to rob him of his natural 
rights, felt that he had a heart within worth tenfold more 
than all the boasted wealth of his country. Take from him 
that you call property, and of what do you rob him ? that 
for which thousands have panted, and, like the thirsty Tan¬ 
talus, have found themselves filled with emptyness. But 
take from him the right of control over the breath of life 
that is in him, breathed into his nostrils by Almighty God; 
those capacities of action and guidance that flow out from 
that spiritual, God-given faculty, and then you make him 
poor indeed ! Take from me my purse, ’tis but an outward 
incumbrance; take from me the power of free thought and 
unrestrained action, you rob me of my life, my very being. 
It was a consciousness of these immortal truths, filling and 
exalting their hearts, that endowed those noble men with an 
indomitable courage; nerved them with an ever renewed 
and ever increasing strength, that guided and supported 
them, instead of government, discipline, war munitions, 
allies and friends; completely illustrating, by this example, 
the great moral doctrine, indispensable to all self-government, 
that whenever a community of men throw themselves en¬ 
tirely and fearlessly, with undivided faith, on those broad 
principles of truth and justice, that impress themselves spon¬ 
taneously on every heart, they will have a sure guidance, 
that can never fail them; an elastic, self-sustaining strength, 
over which no earthly power can prevail. The omnipo¬ 
tence of this moral principle was not illustrated by our re¬ 
volutionary history alone; every subsequent event of the 
Republic has proven its capacity to secure unity of will, 
harmony of feeling, concert of action, and a safe deliverance 
from every domestic trial. 

When the invading foe had retired from our borders, and 
left our revolutionary fathers free to examine into their do¬ 
mestic concerns, they were found in a deplorable condition. 
All resources were exhausted, enormous debts accumulated, 

3 


18 


agriculture was languishing, commerce annihilated, currency 
consisting of paper issues, reduced to a worthless condition; 
local interests and sectional jealousies springing up in every 
quarter, threatening civil commotions; and no common go¬ 
vernment was there, to apply the balm and heal those death 
producing maladies. Things looked gloomy enough to the 
eye of common observation. Judging by ordinary human mo¬ 
tives, according to the passions and interests of men, no fa¬ 
vorable issue could be anticipated. But that great moral 
law, abiding in the hearts of all men, the truth of which we 
have been endeavoring to enforce from the beginning, did not 
fail them in this hour of sorest trial. Accustomed to think 
honestly, to speak and act freely, those men felt that there 
must be some remedy for the present evil; and by casting 
away prejudice, suppressing all selfish interest, and following 
faithfully the light of reason and the dictates of conscience, 
as they had hitherto done, they could not fail to find that 
remedy, and apply it in such way as to secure union, 
harmony, and the common good. Those plain, simple 
hearted men did not pretend to that intuition and experi¬ 
ence in affairs, which would enable them to devise a plan 
of government, and to extricate their country from embar¬ 
rassment. But they possessed that honesty of intention, and 
singleness of purpose, which always endows the possessor 
with a wonderful sagacity in detecting the motives of others, 
and confers on them an unerring capacity to select men of 
wisdom and moral worth, who will faithfully perform the 
trust reposed in them. And this is the only true democratic 
mode of procedure, the only practical application of those 
principles on which rests the possibility of self government. 
It is not expected that the people, in their primary assem¬ 
blies, will be able to form constitutions of government, un¬ 
fold the detail of a financial measure, and unravel the intri¬ 
cacies of a commercial regulation: but it is expected of 
them to know their own motives, to bring those motives to 
the test of conscience, to guide their conduct by that spiritual 


law which constitutes their inmost being, and makes them 
moral free agents, rather than prone, unguided, perishing 
brutes. It is expected of them to be faithful to this great 
inwardly controlling principle, and thereby to be faithful and 
true to themselves. Are you resolved to do that which is 
just and right in itself, though a time-serving policy might 
dictate a different course ? Are you resolved to follow prin¬ 
ciple, though your own individual, or sectional, or even 
party interest, might suffer in consequence a temporary in¬ 
convenience ? In your selection of agents and representa¬ 
tives, do you cast aside all partialities, prejudices, personal 
influences, and select those men you really believe honest 
and capable 7 Men who will seek the common good, and 
not a special interest; who will faithfully follow principle, 
and not pervert their station of trust into a place of personal 
advancement and temporizing policy 7 And when you have 
selected and sent them on their mission, are you keenly 
watchful of their conduct, sternly just in your exactions, 
and rigidly prompt in your demands of an account of their 
stewardship? If the people, in a word, be only true to 
themselves, true to that great moral law ever working in 
their hearts, and ever shining as a light to their feet and a 
lamp to their path, they cannot fail to select men who will 
counsel wisely, and act skilfully, justly, magnanimously in 
all the offices, both public and private, of peace and of war. 

On the memorable occasion to which we allude, when sel¬ 
fish passions and interest appeared to be gaining the ascen¬ 
dant, and dissolution and anarchy inevitable, the people, 
firmly relying on the power of truth, met together in their 
primary assemblies, and honestly selected those men they be¬ 
lieved to be capable and faithful. Having none other than the 
common good at heart, freed from prejudice, and local par¬ 
tialities, they did not fail to select men who were governed 
by the same motives. Those men met in convention, and the 
result of their labours was our present Constitution—a con¬ 
stitution admitting the principle of progress, and precisely 


20 



adapted to the circumstances of the country and the con¬ 
dition of the people, limited to those functions only which 
are indispensable to the common good, imposing no une¬ 
qual duties, conferring no especial benefits on any class or 
section. And thus, for the first time in the history of hu¬ 
manity, were embodied into a constitution of government 
those principles of truth and justice which spring from the 
moral nature of man, for the growth and development of 
which our ancestors had sought out and conquered this West¬ 
ern Hemisphere, and for nearly two hundred years experi¬ 
enced their strength and virtue; for they completely exem¬ 
plified the truth that the whole human race had hitherto 
failed to learn, that a united and prosperous society does not 
depend for its existence on those outward forms of govern¬ 
ment which are the results of logic, reasoning and expedi¬ 
ency, but on an inward moral principle, springing up from 
the spiritual nature of man, common to all, and better known 
and obeyed by the mass of mankind than the few who float 
on the surface and labor to divert the current of events to 
their own selfish ends. 

Having achieved the great enterprise of prescribing a fun¬ 
damental law for the guidance of their legislative agents, 
the people rested from their labors in the vain hope that their 
representatives would execute the functions of government 
in the same spirit in which the constitution itself was con¬ 
ceived,—but they were doomed to mortification and disap¬ 
pointment. Our national legislature for the first ten years 
was filled with men who never felt a consciousness of that 
living all-embracing spirit of truth and justice in which our 
political institutions originated—men who never entertained 
the first idea of that great moral law which constitutes the 
being of civil government, and was the moving cause of the 
first settlement, rapid growth, the unexampled prosperity, 
firm union and triumphant success of the American people. 
Having no conception of a self-sustaining, inwardly control¬ 
ling principle, common to mankind, they could have no faith 
in its capacity to produce harmony, unerring forethought and 


21 


wise action on the part of the people. They did not believe 
in ther self-governing power, were afraid to trust them with 
their own affairs, and had faith only in such checks and ba¬ 
lances as a time-serving policy might suggest—such restraint, 
as a selfish interest might dictate. They openly avowed 
preference of the British Constitution with all its corruptions, 
because in its omnipotent Parliament of King, Lords and 
Commons, constituting a hereditary aristocracy and a pen¬ 
sioned hierarchy, they found that power of resistance and con¬ 
trol which was regarded as indispensable to hold the restless 
blind multitude in subjection. Their conception of a govern¬ 
ment was not that of a simple, unobtrusive, unburthensome 
movement, arising naturally from the wants and circum¬ 
stances of the country, but of a huge taxing machine in the 
hands of a chosen few, who held it in perpetuity, and hedged 
themselves about with walls and ditches, and towers with 
frowning guns and battlements, to awe the people into acqui¬ 
escence and submission. These men, if they took any part 
in the war of revolution, it was only as open or secret ene¬ 
mies or as doubtful friends. If on the other hand, they par¬ 
ticipated in its success, as many did, it was not that they had 
any faith in the capacity for self-government, but that they 
might substitute themselves in place of the kings, lords, and 
high priests of the old world. These were the men who 
seized on the government in the beginning, and conducted 
it on those principles of selfish policy which never failed to 
end in wrong and oppression. Posessing the government, 
they soon perverted it into a machine for funding, banking, 
stockjobbing and speculating purposes. Such was their ra¬ 
pacity, that nothing could satiate their cormorant appetite! 
the worthless rags of a paper currency, which had died on the 
hands of the poor and ignorant, were swindled from them, 
and made the basis of those funding and banking operations, 
whereby enormous fortunes were accumulated out of the 
hard earnings of the poor, and the righteous claims of the 
pensioner and toil-worn soldier, who begged only subsistence 


22 


in exchange for his youth, health, fortune, and blood, freely 
spent in defence of his country. For nearly ten years they 
ruled over this land, with a high hand and an outstretched 
arm, proclaiming to the world their contempt of the people, 
and their utter disbelief in those principles of democracy on 
which our institutions were founded. By their alien and se¬ 
dition laws, the hapless refugee was driven back beyond the 
Atlantic, to chains and death, and our own unoffending citi¬ 
zens, for freely expressing their opinions, were dragged before 
unknown tribunals and condemned to fine and imprisonment. 
Our ancient friends and allies were insulted and provoked to 
a war, that those rulers might have a pretence to increase 
their standing armies, their burdens and taxes, and thereby 
more effectually secure and perpetuate their lawless dominion. 

The constitution, with all its limitations, for nearly ten 
years, was scornfully trampled under foot, and the doctrines 
and practices of the monarchs and aristocracy of the old world 
openly avowed by our rulers, were completely triumphant, 
and fast hurrying us back into that spiritual and temporal 
bondage from which our fathers had sought to escape, by the 
discovery and plantation of a new continent. 

But that ever living spirit of democracy, the soul of truth 
and justice, unconsciously slumbering in the hearts of the 
people, was again wakened into action: its sympathetic influ¬ 
ences, vibrated through the bosom of every true hearted man, 
kindled a spirit of resistance and produced a unity and sin¬ 
gleness of purpose, against which no earthly power could 
prevail. Our lordly usurpers cowered in its presence and 
shrunk beneath its benumbing influences. In peace it 
wrought its triumphant work, and ushered in the present 
century, with a moral revolution unparalleled in the annals 
of history. 

A revolution which could never have been accomplished 
in any other country without the shedding of blood, and 
which completely vindicates the truth that there'dwells in 
the heart of a free people an ever living, self controlling 


23 


principle; a spiritual essence, on which all their social and 
political institutions repose, and on which alone they rely 
for strength, efficiency and perpetuity. 

But the spirit of evil is also perennial: cut off the mon¬ 
ster’s head and forthwith ten will spring up in its place; 
crush him in one form and, Proteus like, he reappears in an¬ 
other. The price of virtue is perpetual toil—of liberty eter¬ 
nal vigilance. 

No sooner had we escaped from the perils of another war, 
exhausted in resources and burthened with debt, than the 
same class of men, who held it in the beginning, seized on 
the government and again perverted it to their own selfish 
ends. Following the instincts of their nature, they as¬ 
sumed omnipotent powers for a government the people had 
ordained for limited and specified purposes, and commenced 
a system of unequal and unjust taxation, beneficial to the 
few, burthensome to the many; taxation, not for revenue, 
not for the legitimate wants of a government economically 
administered, but, avowedly, for the purpose of fostering and 
protecting the interests of certain sections and classes, at the 
expense of the entire nation. The vast funds thus accumu¬ 
lated were wielded as a magic wand to sway the minds of 
the people, corrupt their principles, and change their love of 
liberty into a thirst for gain, by appealing to their hopes and 
exciting their expectation that some portion of the rich spoil, 
the fruits of their prostitution and abandonment of princi¬ 
ple would fall to them, but which in reality were wasted on 
some worthless scheme, not for the common good, but the 
sole benefit of those engaged in the speculation. At the 
head of this system of bribery and corruption was the Na¬ 
tional Bank, that wielded not only its own vast capital, cre¬ 
ated out of the debts of the recent war, but held absolute % 
control, the power of life and death, over all the local banks 
and kindred institutions of the country. As the thinking 
head and controlling will of this vast moneyed power, with 
untold millions at her command, with a sovereign preroga- 


24 




tive of elevating or debasing at pleasure the currency and 
property of the country, the Bank of the United States had 
organized a consolidated, well disciplined band of men, 
thoroughly imbued with aristocratic notions of the nobility 
of money, the degradation of labor, and was boldly and 
openly aspiring to absolute legislative as well as commercial 
control; not content with the ledger, was seeking dominion 
also over the statute book. By her insidious appliances and 
artful promises, more corrupting than open bribery, already 
was she crowding our National Assembly and State Legis¬ 
latures with hired and unprincipled orators, assailing the in¬ 
tegrity of the people through her pensioned presses, and as 
the avowed enemy of democratic principles, was recklessly 
pressing forward to the overthrow of our free institutions, 
and the establishment of what they chose to denominate a 
mild aristocracy. The open introduction of a monied power 
to influence the representatives of the people, the martial ar¬ 
ray of a numerous and powerful political party under the 
banners of a banking corporation, boldly wielding her 
mighty resources to coerce the people into a submission to 
her will, were evidences of corruption and degeneracy that 
must soon work the prostration and ruin of popular govern¬ 
ment. But the spirit of freedom still hovered over the land, 
and with the spear of Ithuriel touched the slumbering ear of 
the people, and woke them to a sense of their true condition. 

Finding that the reins of government had glided from 
their own hands, and fallen into the possession of a privi¬ 
leged order, who were creating monopolies for themselves, 
and engines of oppression for the many, they resolved once 
more to strike for independence. With the unerring saga¬ 
city of a free people, governed by an enlightened, self con¬ 
trolling principle, they struck at the centre of the unholy 
combination, the sun of the system around which all the 
lesser luminaries revolved, and from which they drew their 
light and heat, and principles of vitality. On the Fourth of 
July, 1832, the hero of the iron nerve, pronounced the sove- 


25 


rfeign will of the people, and proclaimed to the world, that 
the bastile of tyranny and usurpation should be levelled with 
the earth ; the mother of Jacobins should no longer hold a 
place among the living; 

But the end was not yet. Though their head and chief 
was destroyed, the mbneyed aristocracy which had been 
marching forwtird, with the steadiness of a disciplined armyj 
to the ovetthirow of our democratic institutions, was neither 
defeated nor dismayed. With more than wonted unanimity 
they seized on the local corporation^ of the States; and made 
them the rallying points of a more desperate assault than 
had yet been made on the prinbiples and integrity of the 
people. The State Banks, within a few years, nearly 
doubled their original number, were greatly enlarged in their 
powers and nominal resources, dnd made to pour forth, with 
prodigal hand their spurious issues of paper money; those 
pictured shadows, that bewildered the brain, intoxicated the 
hearts of the people, and drove them into the maddest schemes 
bf speculation and extravagahce. Never did any nation, in 
the same space of time; make more rapid advances in dege¬ 
neracy, or approach nearer a total abandonment of that great 
moral law which constitutes the being of all civil society; 
and a substitution in its place of those time-serving expedi¬ 
ents of interest and selfishness which never fail to end in 
fraud; oppression, and ruin: The soundest hearts were tainted 
by the insidious influences of ideal wealth: Property and 
business were converted into lotteries; sober industry was 
abandoned, and every man hoped to realize a fortune by 
some lucky adventure, or daring hazard. The banks them- 
Selves set an example of the most reckless profligacy, 
through their agency the surplus revenues were distributed, 
and the funds of the nation scattered among the States; 
hot for safe keeping and disbursement, but solely as means 
of bribing and corrupting the representatives of the people, ^ 
and as a pahulum for their own cormorant appetites to feed 
Upon; And when they had run their wild career; involved 
4 


26 


the country in frightful embarrassments, and brought bn an 
issue of life or death between themselves and the people^ 
with \i^hat sovereign coolness and deliberation did they re¬ 
solve to take care of themselves, violate every obligationy 
defy law, and trust to their own omnipotence for protection 
and justification. Nor were they mistaken in their strength, 
or the firmness of their hold. Well did they know that 
there was a hook in the mouth of Leviathan, and that they 
could lead him whithersoever they listed. Did not the re^ 
presentatives of the people, at the bidding of the banks, with 
the utmost alacrity, call together their respective Legislatures, 
and for what purpose ? To rebuke them for their infidelity 't 
To punish them for their treachery to the people? Far 
otherwise. They were only assembled to register the edicts of 
those whose dictation they dared not question, and to justify 
their acts of usurpation and violence. After debasing the cur¬ 
rency, and prostrating the energies of the country, they were 
not content with the thanks and approbation of the State Le¬ 
gislatures, but had the hardihood to demand of the Federal 
government a continued reception of their paper issues, 
though greatly depreciated, and a retention of themselves a^ 
agents for controlling the national revenue^, although their 
faith and pledges had been shamefully abandoned. Threats 
of violence and revolution were resorted to as means of in¬ 
timidating the Executive, and forcing a compliance with 
their immoral and fraudulent demands. Happily, the Pre¬ 
sident possessed a wisdom and firmness eminently suited to 
the crisis. He saw that the constitution recognised nothing 
but gold and silver as a currency, and by the laws nothing 
short of their equivalent could be received in payment of the 
public dues. He resolved to adhere to that standard, to hold 
to the letter and the spirt of that fundamental law which 
had been conceived in the wisdom and sincerity of honest, 
well tried and faithful men. His duty was plain before him; 
but never had man a more difficult path to tread. Beset with 
dangers on every hand, wide waste and havoc spread around, 


27 


panic and dismay on every countenance, it was a path no 
temporizing- man would have ventured on. None but the 
lofty soul who feels the everlasting, infinite spirit of truth, 
filling and sustaining his heart, enlightening and guiding 
his judgment, could have stood forth undismayed in that 
fierce storm. Though clouds and darkness were about him, 
he fixed his eye on the polar star of truth, and resolved, 
whether he be wrecked or safely landed, to follow its gui¬ 
dance. The winds and the waves played with the mighty 
ship, but the winds and the waves played not with his firm 
lieart. Manfully he stood at the helm, and, calmly survey¬ 
ing the grim deep, rolling and billowing its dark waters at 
his feet, steered ris^ht onward, trusting to that invisible and 
all sustaining power that never failed the sincere and faith¬ 
ful heart. The act of the President, by which Bank and 
State were forever separated, like the more ancient divorce 
of Church and State, was an act of heroism, of sublime 
moral courage, which this generation is too near to behold 
and to comprehend. Posterity alone can gather it into one 
scope of vision, and survey its just proportions. 

At a moment when few would have dared to stand up for 
the truth, few have ventured on those old and forgotten prin¬ 
ciples of the constitution, from which we have departed for 
near half a century—with undivided faith, he flung himself 
upon them and trusted to their unerring guidance. Know¬ 
ing not that another arm would come to his aid, he unfurled 
the banner of the constitution as the last hope, and called 
on the people to rally around it. With what joy did they 
hear that sound! It fell upon the ear like the sound of 
coming rain in a thirsty land—like the soft voice of friends 
in a moment of peril. What exultation ran through the 
hearts of the people. The old feeling of patriotism revived 
again, and the bosom expanded once more with those exalt- 
ing principles that bore our fathers triumphantly through 
the revolution—safely through that period of anarchy which 
immediately succeeded, and the great moral reformation that 


28 


ushered in the present century. The people felt they ha4 
something to rest upon, something to contend for; the truth 
filled their hearts and made them glad; joyfully they ran 
together, seized each other by the hand, and blessed the man 
who had sp nobly achieved the second independence of his 
(Country. But the representatives, whom they had sent for¬ 
ward to ratify and confirm that deed of separation and dir 
vorcement, betwpen themselves and their tyrant usurpers, 
quailed before the storm, and failed to fulfil the high trust 
reposed in them. Too often a time-serving policy and a sel¬ 
fish calculation of individual interest, make those timid and 
fearful who should be foremost in the ranks of truth and 
principle. Those faithless servants were turned away and 
others placed in their stead, who have nobly performed the 
task assigned them. Like men feeling the responsibility 
resting on them, and the magnitude of their duty, they have 
calmly, amid threats and violence, resolutely fulfilled the 
great trust reposed in them. After an arduous and protracted 
struggle, they are now winding their several ways home¬ 
ward, to the bospm of their constituents j and who can doubt 
that they will be welcomed as good and faithful servants. 
Now that the deed is done, fulfilled in the spirit of truth, 
can it be imagined that the people will be frightened from 
those principles that gladdened their hearts in the beginning? 
You might as well attempt to frighten Ocean bapk into the 
dark caverns of the deep—command his billows cease to 
lift their heads and obey that law which bids them ebb and 
flow everlastingly, as to drive a free, moral and enlightened 
people from those deep unseen spiritual principles that con- 
stitute the law of their own being, and the living essence of 
* all true society and government. 

Now that the representatives of the people for the first 
time since the formation of the constitution, have acted in 
its spirit—for the first time legislated for the national good 
and not for a special interest; for the first time cast them¬ 
selves unreservedly on those broad principles of truth, that 


29 


find a response in the hearts of all men, are they to be for¬ 
saken, cast away, and forgotten ? Shall honesty and fidelity 
reap scorn and contempt, as the first fruits of their labour ? 
Believe it not. Those faithful servants will be most tri¬ 
umphantly sustained. 

The scene now exhibited before us—the booming guns 
shot forth by the veteran hand of the hoary soldier, who 
fought the first battles of Independence, and the shouts of 
thousands on thousands of freemen sending up their accla¬ 
mations to heaven in thankfulness for the second Indepen¬ 
dence of their country, is but an example of those to be ex¬ 
hibited throughout this continent. But be not deceived— 
trust not that your task is accomplished. What you have 
done, is only the beginning—have suffered but an earnest of 
that which is to come—mightier interests than temporal 
prosperity, the mere regulation of currency, are staked on 
this issue. Shall man, breathing an immortal spirit, live ac- 
pording to the laws of his nature, and enjoy the birthrights 
of his creation 1 —shall he tread the green earth and breathe 
the limpid air untrammelled—unfold the divine faculties of 
Jiis soul, and so live in the light of reason and conscience as 
to dwell in peace and union, fulfilling just and equal duties, 
with none to molest or make him afraid ? These are the 
mighty interests staked on the present contest. The same 
battle we have had to fight from the beginning, only more 
fierce and terrible. The arch enemy of truth and human 
kind—the grand hierarch of apostacy, filled with the malice 
of disappointment, urged on by the dread of falling fortunes, 
peases not to ply every enginery to draw into his toils those 
that may be duped by his sorceries. Conscious that the 
men who have played a prominent part before the people, 
aqd are truly great, have rendered themselves odious by 
their doctrines and their practices, these have been thrust 
aside, and a man of straw set up in their stead, to play his 
fantastic tricks in the eyes of the multitude. 

pnowing that their principles are unsound—hostile to the 


30 


4 - 

-H 

4 - 


liberties of the country, will not bear the test of truth, have 
often been tried, as often rejected, they have carefully drawn 
a veil over their abominations, and undertaken to delude and 
lead captive the nation by hollow sound and pageantry. 
With their drums and trumpets, and long processions, bear¬ 
ing in their train curiously wrought banners, and signs, and 
mysterious emblems, and arks of the covenant, they are 
marching through the land like a host of monades^ with 
songs and shouts, and coral dances, shaming the sun with 
their profanations, and stunning the ear of night with their 
bacchanalian revelries. The lords of this land, beholding 
these things, feeling from the depth of their free, enlightened 
souls, that all is hollow sound and empty shadow, invented 
by the father of lies, to lead captive the foolish and the igno^ 
rant, will laugh at them; and the wretched puppets and 
mountebanks, who play off these silly vanities, will they 
hold in derision—break them with a rod of iron, and dash 
them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 

That light which God spake into existence in the begim 
ning, ever-weaving, ever-working, through all space, through 
endless time—which was breathed into the nostrils of man, 
and became to him a quickening spirit, in like manner work^ 
ing through his fleshly nature, transforming and exalting its 
earthly essences—for many generations buried beneath the 
weight of animal passion^reviving only to become a fearful 
fiery element in the hand of selfish appetite—bursting forth 
at length in its original purity in the bosom of our own fa¬ 
thers, endowing them with a wisdom, a virtue, a heroism, 
and unanimity that made them triumphant over every foe 
successful in every domestic trial^—that infinite God-emana¬ 
ting light, sole permanence in the midst of change, as an 
all-embracing, all-sustaining spirit of truth, still shines, and 
lives and expands in the bosom of every free man, lifting the 
humblest and poorest above all selfish considerations, and 
exalting him into the hero and the patriot—shooting its sym¬ 
pathetic influences from heart to heart, binding all together 


31 


in union and brotherhood, and endowing them with a unity, 
a singleness of purpose, and a power of resistance, against 
which all the powers of earth and hell, cannot prevail. 

The triumphant victory of this great spirit of light, the 
soul of truth and justice, the parent of democracy, sweeping 
from its path all that is time-serving and all that is false, 
crushing the oppressor and lifting up the captive and the 
down trodden, may be delayed for a season, but it will surely 
come. The men of this generation, frightened at the billowy 
boundlessness before them, may not venture forth and foh 
low in the light of truth. Then to the young let the appeal 
be made. In their free untainted hearts it is still radiant, 
and they will not fear to follow its guidance. A noble ex¬ 
ample have they already before them: the spot on which we 
now tread witnessed his magnanimity of soul. You who 
hear me this day felt the breath of his mighty spirit breath¬ 
ing o’er you and endowing your hearts with its own devo¬ 
tion and self-sacrifice. Though the fleshly form, the poor 
earthly encumbrance, that fed on the breath and the bread of 
time be now mouldering back into the bosom of its mother 
earth, the spirit of William Leggett still lives, burning 
brighter and brighter, filling the young heart with its own 
love of truth, its invincible strength, courage and heroism# 




m 


.14' 


<itfWIW<»H? 'i’JI^V/ofwO (MijT'tfKAf7(I'£*)tifQ^d hiW HOlfi# ftfr 
tsto*>iTji>,w<!pthti-- i!t “jiTOffi I# i.!i/> fer KnMtdjL’fiw^)^ 

■ .fite eo i4f:)viE.>)| amij '** * 


'^» ,l««j^i$l« JKi»ij* tiEia^ aiHr')', (u.! ; jufnff^.jtrfif a^* 


'fm‘^o*it ,’<ifl1-Xii*io£)iilo »n/»ta<,- a,!f ;• !,;in rfijftt f(*;4!»u; 

!«}■ ^ 

^d| ftrtfi: uvUfffn 9 itt cfci ^ti.ul : .^jiiisrita 

'J't V'-’--l 1 

. its^ tiri’iv i/.i’nos 

* 1 *>X 3 tfji<E?VA trtfl E>l 4 <M'K)',fV 8 ''‘HTEE 9 I 0 {iAfU£OEt ' 

!»<(( Mi :^(rtiiirtf 9 i!» {rfifHuit't'; '.rfiinJ li> Ml iif%») 

: <»fi«i(tnt Hite al If sliB!iif fi-iKriirittd sff)-il -iloilM'il 

iAi w.i JoAiffw Y^iiA 


■^a sfifrtAi Aj i-niEcHiug «tfe.'te<)lfi;;"(d -Uafji JoAffw 
f»w liSiihr ilo )«K^ .xll : Kiai(l: 5 H<)l':.s f 

IKif '.'Jri(W lo ijlwiKdtfgiHrt finail f 

xnfginf Afit l</ilJ,i.6i<jt atl/ jlajt ^Eitkwrfi <«> wm i: ' 
><AA96«iB» Bif riIivAtUu,y4=‘’'*< y.UW0t)«l:> Hivf.TV.v^v 

(HiTol- Tfl.ii^.,5,411 .ilgi«ui'L’ .. 3 qit« 9 «i!-Koa'in/wwii,,' ^ 
10 6h»hI’M> &Wj* iSiwisf Iwrf' ^’JidwdnAuiijji 

Jk<fJqni, aU Jo «lq:- 4 afft-oHii gaiiaiUttom Vfon si 9ia(f, 

)J«iiwii(i:^viraci» .T>>«4K)i^r% in lhiqa;.vf(i;iH-u4 ,’ 

lifWo-, alf jliivA JiRwf-gfimY adJ Ua .■nUfl^jid 




# 


I 'r I 


■ V 





. / 



'' & 


h 

4 

iif 




'•^y^ 


^ r, . ‘ % Ebi . » 

■ ' 1 ■> 'v^; • ‘ • >; ;/'? ;• 

' / . ; ■ ' ,: ->1 - 
• I . • , ■ ' . , i. •,' ■, • t ^ 

■> . '. ' il •■ ■ ‘ ^ 


m -'- 

i 


, . •-• • ' . • » '• • V , • . h~ . r-i 

• “ * I . • , • . i. t , , '* » 

■ * ' 

.* . ■ ' '. . . ' ,. .t-V 

ji. — ■ '1 . .• ^ • „ » • -^ *‘ ■ - 

V --.x '*** «■ - ’'''*. • •»' ’ • ''* '''1 • - — * '7'*f 

' ;V' V 

*•' ' A ^ 4 ' ’ * ••. »%*'. *r* ' ■ *^ • * ' "'. ^ 


'*f. . ' 1- ‘ 

'I A ' • > ' f ‘ ' i. 

* 1 • 


* • • 




J,'* 





ri 

'f 



,,. - -. , - ' -. ■- ■. . 1 . ■ - ‘ ' 

• , • . / . A* I *jk, • ' . . ^*,^J *f r ^ ' ■ / ,.- . 

* ** v ,^v- . ' ^ . 

^ ^• ■• ^7''^*ww3E? •■• ' 4 ► 

■ - ■' . *v" v: ■ ■’ '. ' Vx-vV^ ■•^'•'1.* 


■■:rv’- ' "' ■■ ■ 

’• ' '-Vt, ’• ■*. ‘ ;,' C.>, H ;'.r 

Ik ■ • -. • 


i'- -ra'f 





: ' y 



" • : 4 • V 

I^d.s t . » ■ \r 




T • 


■ # 

» 



^ as 

■ i .'■:*- :; ■ ' ) , f , 'V ■ '' X> •-' ’ ■ /’ »x 

' y \ * ''* ' ' 

k ’. »i'*' ' • '*'*) '■".' ^ '■ *f ‘ 

••■''" ■ a"*'*'■‘•’ 




. 'ih ' 

\ i 



X • - '• i: . ■ ■.. 

^'•^-••••: r^'-/ :xv, .-■ ■•■ ' ■ 

• ‘>'* •> <, •' . k • ? , ■ -I . ■^,-1 '.%» .• X ... . . * 

. ■ ; • • ' ■*1 •. S . - ■ -' • ^1a •« 

'' '•..'i' 

' .' '•.., •"-,’ X' ' ■ ' "'V '■ . 

' t . . ;■„. X ■’. . ' ■ ', V'."^ .W/;»'V^‘Vy ■■'«r ' ' 



4 ► ^ 

> ■ r^-V'‘ 


'•'•■ r-- '•'•*'■ ■ * > -•? . BHrW: . ■ /* ■ ^ 

,v* - .;'L.:-> ' ' , ,-". ' •;-.^ 3 [^^ v*^ 

*/ ' V' •-- : • ■ •>>/. •; ' ‘ •'-'V . -s/^. . - >. V , 

■■i • ‘ ■ -A..’■■ • ■ •» '• 1 • .r ■ ^' '•■. > •, - ... -,/. ' 'Y 

■ ■ ‘■.. -Y ' ‘, -■• ■• .;■ ^ •, 

■■..>''•■■ . ^ I ' > ■■' '■'•V '* '''"'■* •• ' .-x 

■ ■■■ 'X' . '•■ ■ '>■ vx'"'. -'Vx , :v:-t-',-;. ,-,v^v^v;:..' 


> ■ '.■'. s- ■' ■ . ' .. ". 

• . •■ ■ '>■ VX'"'. -'VX , :v:-t-',-;. ,-,vxV^v;:..' 

^ vY-x-’'' 

-■.• :•>"/'- ^ ' ■‘•-^YVxV. „; ..•.> 

^ * • • i..- T»-Al? f-V “ • ‘t 'n ■- * ' ‘‘ 

.. - ; :y-^ '■ 


- ’* .. < ^ 

A.‘• » 


^ik. 


V • 

i 


r. 


>. y*. ■ , 

< .•;. xf'- -1 

■* . 


' ' 

.'. 

s’ 

■ i . 

4 

i 

i 

. » 

\ 

•^V - 

• 

i 


M 






' ^' ‘^V- • ‘ • ^ ' 

-• M-. '"• 




4 \ 


,v \ . .■ ■ ,vr 

■A - *4 ^. ■ . ■■'•'.;*■• 

;;'• ' ' .. r >'■ ^ ... 

. • ■' 

^ . . .’ ' #' . i- '«/>' > ■', >*>4! • Xj';:'/ V' 

I ' ' .^■. ■ - ■ y- 

■. ’: . : ■:* x- 


■«'' :••* ‘ ‘.^v;-,-.-; .• •/ ■ .i •'> 7 .:'■’• i ■ ‘ . 4 - ■'.. 

•.,.* < ^ • :>'Y ..A’..;' 

' ' 7#. ;, •. ,. ' • , ^ 

■ ;'v • >•■*>/ 






V ■■?. x 

i ■' -‘ ■ '"■ i y.- 

^ .r.s * ' • . . ‘:» ^ • 

. • * . ■. ■ r ' '. 

- *■■ .:.\V - 


' *' 




* ' 

'• A- . , 3 ..., ' ’. 

i . ■ 


« 

* .< 



■ ''..^ f. 


' -^v • 


I H 'V 




, • ■ « 




» 4*- 





r 


k 


/■* 


I 



\ 




f 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0 028 001 681 0 




I 


'r t.,. 


*• ' 

‘ ■<»» 


• . ■ j•» 

, . 1- *V*i. - 


-v- ?: > 




I 


• \ 







t 


\ 






•V 


i-' 


i 


t 


v 

\ 

r 

♦ ' 



(> 


r. 



r 


V 




:S 



! / 






